1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a tag integrated circuit (IC) module apparatus and a method of fabricating the tag IC module apparatus which may be compactly fabricated by excluding a radiator and using an attachable metal body as the radiator.
2. Description of the Related Art
A radio frequency identification (RFID) tag may be used along with an RFID reader in various fields, such as, materials management, security, and the like. In general, when an object to which the RFID tag is attached is disposed in a read zone of the RFID reader, the RFID reader modulates a radio frequency (RF) signal having a predetermined carrier frequency and transmits an interrogation signal to the RFID tag. Subsequently, the RFID tag responds to the interrogation signal of the RFID reader.
A passive RFID tag receives the RF signal transmitted from the RFID reader, converts the RF signal to a direct current, and uses the direct current as operation power of the passive RFID tag. Accordingly, an intensity of the RF signal received by the RFID tag needs to be greater than a predetermined threshold for normal operation of the passive RFID tag. To improve a read range of the passive RFID reader, an increase in transmission power of the RFID reader is required. However, the transmission power of the RFID reader is regulated according to local regulations of each country, such as, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) in the U.S.A. and thus, limitations exist on increasing the transmission power of the RFID reader.
Accordingly, a tag antenna capable of efficiently receiving the RF signal transmitted from the RFID reader may be used to maximize the read range of the RFID reader with respect to the RFID tag.
However, the conventional tag antenna uses an inductive coupling occurring between a metal radiator and a feed loop to which a tag IC is attached by closely disposing the feed loop to the metal radiator. Since a metal radiator in a shape of a long metal strip is included, a size of the conventional tag antenna increases and thus, compact fabrication thereof is difficult.